Are you frustrated over missing thumbnails for your Canon EOS 7D Mark II RAW-files in Windows Explorer? Here's a way to get thumbnails on your 7DII RAW files...

With FastPictureViewer's Codec Pack, support for Photoshop PSD and 7D Mark II CR2 RAW files has here been added in Windows Explorer - DNG files created with Adobe's new RAW HDR-merge feature, does however not seem to be supported (yet?). The three blank icons are XMP sidecar files to the RAW files.

Microsoft has a Camera Codec Pack for Windows, but it does not yet support RAW files from 7D Mark II. Actually Microsoft hasn't updated the Codec Pack since April 2014, so it's easy to suspect that Microsoft don't update it at all anymore. So that's not it - at least not for now...

Some years back Canon released a Canon RAW Codec package for Windows, but that software hasn't been updated for years. So that's not it either... [edit: If you're a Windows 10 user, see August 2016 update below].

You could shoot RAW+JPG (or make a script to extract JPGs from all your RAW files), so your CR2 RAW files always have a JPG-companion with thumbnail. But that's not really how you ideally want to do it, is it?...

Luckily the people behind FastPictureViewer has a Codec Pack available adding Windows thumbnails support for Canon EOS 7D Mark II RAW files, and a big number of other RAW and image-file formats. You can currently purchase a single-user version for USD 9.99 and it should support all Windows versions from XP SP3 to Windows 8.1 in both 32 og 64 bit versions. Actually they also claim support for the forthcoming Windows 10. For my 64 bit Windows 7 installation I can confirm it added support for both 7DII CR2 RAW files and Adobe Photoshop PSD files, though Adobe DNG files created with Adobe Camera RAW's new HDR-merge feature is still only shown with a standard icon.

Update April 2016: If FastPictureViewer's Codec Pack has stopped working on Windows 10, do a complete uninstall/reinstall of the Codec Pack (repair is apparently not enough) followed by deletion of thumbnails via Windows' Disk Cleanup feature. Should fix the problem and worked for me...

A few Canon updates from the week. Specific for owners of Canon EOS 7D Mark II, there's a new firmware version 1.0.4 out. It should fix a few not so common issues:

Fixes a phenomenon in which the camera's AF function may not operate properly at a focal length of approximately 100mm when used with the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens.

Fixes a phenomenon in which, in rare instances, the reduction of the flicker effect cannot be achieved when in AI servo AF mode, despite the "Anti-flicker shoot" function being set to "Enable".

Fixes a phenomenon in which the Picture Style settings may not be applied to the captured image when the camera is set to custom shooting mode C1, C2 or C3.

Fixes a phenomenon in which, in very rare cases, the first still image captured in live view mode may not record the correct date and time.

Fixes a phenomenon in which, in very rare cases, image noise may appear in JPEG images when brightness or contrast is corrected by the Auto Lighting Optimizer function.

Firmware updates can be downloaded from Canon US, Canon Europe, Canon Asia or your local Canon site. And while you are at it, you might check the latest software updates from Canon too. Canon has new versions out of Digital Photo Professional, EOS Utility and the Picture Style Editor.

The week also gave us an announcement of a new Canon lens. An update of the cheap but classic EF 50mm/1.8, commonly known as the "nifty fifty". The new version has been given STM AF-motor for better AF-performance, a 7-blade aperture (up from 5) for better bokeh quality and the minimum focusing distance for the lens has been shortened to 0.35m (from 0.45m). Also looks like build quality of Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM has been improved from its predecessor. The lens should be available by the end of May for a very fair price.

Originally the Canon EOS 7D II was scheduled for release late November, however several stores has updated their expected shipping date to October 30th. And rumors says that this is a worldwide release date now...

Adobe has also released updates to their RAW-software, though so far only as release candidates of Adobe Camera Raw 6.3 and Adobe Lightroom 3.3. Adobe release candidates can be downloaded from Adobe Labs and besides bugfixes changes includes support for Powershot S95 and G12 and a number of added or updated lens profiles. More details can be found on the Lightroom Journal.

Three previously annonced lenses from Canon has been delayed. The EF 300mm and 400mm F2.8L IS II lenses was originally scheduled to be released in December, and the EF 8-15mm F4L USM fisheye zoom in January. But they are now all delayed until March due to some adjustments in the manufacturing process.

Camera Raw 3.2 for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom 3.2 has been released today with lots of new lens profiles for Canon users - and a surprisingly quick support for Canon EOS 60D which hasn't even reached the shops yet.

Earlier today Adobereleased Lightroom 2.6 and Camera Raw 5.6. And after some time with only unofficial or preliminary support, Canon EOS 7D RAW files are now officially supported by final Adobe RAW processing software. There has been release candidates out for a month, and it is not clear if the support has been improved in the final releases compared to these, but the final versions should be a vast improvement over the beta-versions and the unofficial support found in the older Lightroom 2.5 and Camera Raw 5.5 releases. Adobe Photoshop CS4 or Photoshop Elements 8 are required to install Camera Raw 5.6. If you have older Adobe RAW software, an option is to download the new DNG Converter 5.6 and use this to convert your 7D RAW files to DNG format. This will make the files compatible with older versions of Photoshop and Lightroom.

Download latest versions of Lightroom, Camera Raw and DNG converter from the Adobe website or use Adobe Photoshop and Lightrooms built-in update functionality. Lightroom 2.6 is a free upgrade for Lightroom 2.x users, Camera Raw 5.6 is a free upgrade for Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop Elements 8 users. The DNG converter is a free tool available for all:

And finally Apple has released Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.7 which adds 7D support to software like Aperture 2.x and iPhoto '08/'09 for Mac. The update is available via the Software Update mechanism of newer releases of Mac OS X.